Her face fell. "It was you recruiting around Brimley? I had no idea."
"Yes, why? Where's the harm? I should think anyone able-bodied would want to fight for their country."
She struggled to breathe evenly. It would not do to launch into a diatribe about the evils of the recruiting system and press-ganging in the middle of the Bath Upper Rooms. All the same, though, she could not let his actions go unchallenged. She recalled a favorite phrase of her father's: it was easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.
So with her eyes wide, and her lips moist from licking them with the tip of her tongue in an almost feline fashion, and her lashes fluttering all the while, she explained to him why she thought the system so unfair.
"Upon my soul, Miss Ashton, I had no idea you were such a Radical," Breedon declared, knitting his brows.
"Is it Radical to want to keep people in their appropriate sphere?" she said with a simper which would have done her aunt proud.
He frowned slightly. "No, I suppose not. But even so, King and Country, you know."
"Those farm lads can serve their country far better by making sure we don't have a shortage of food. Really, it is too bad. Even if they don't get killed, think what hardship their absence from their families will cause."
The dance at an end, Captain Breedon importuned her for another. Since Pamela felt she had not exhausted her opportunity to get him to stop carrying out his duties quite so enthusiastically, she agreed. He was a nice enough man, if she could overlook what he had done to the town of Brimley. He certainly was intelligent and very handsome. He compared favorably with both the Earl and Jonathan. He really was a wonderful conversationalist, even if he was very fond of drink.
But as much as she was enjoying herself, and trying to do good by persuading the Captain of the error of his ways, Pamela began to grow tired of being with every other man in the room except the one she longed for.
She was also not sure that her display of having a wonderful time had succeeded in making him jealous. Jonathan had been standing by a pillar engaged in conversation with several men throughout the course of the evening, and only once had she found his gaze upon her.
Jonathan stood and seethed. He forced himself to participate in a conversation about repealing some of the worst laws in the next session of Parliament, which the Duke of Ellesmere was going to have to attend shortly. But all the while his eyes were following Pamela. The only time he relaxed was when his friend Thomas danced with her.
Clifford said to him quietly, "This is tearing you to shreds, Jonathan. I love you like a brother, and would not see you hurt for all the world. Don't you realize you're only injuring yourself? She's a lovely girl, and not without sense, though she doesn't seem to be exercising very much of it at the moment."
"I can't. I gave my word," he said in an agonized whisper.
"It was all years ago, before things changed. And Jane broke faith--"
Jonathan shook his head bitterly. "You know the wedding vows. I was there when you married Vanessa. When Thomas married Charlotte. I know them by heart. I repeat them wedding after wedding for my parishioners. In them people promise to love, honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, 'til death do they part. Nowhere does it say you will do all those things so long as it is convenient, easy. So long as nothing vast changes in your life. Sickness is no one's fault, least of all the sufferer's."
Clifford shrugged. "I can't disagree with you, but you know how Thomas and I feel. We will not think any the less of you for breaking off the engagement. Jane isn't fit to be anyone's wife now and truly never will be, even if she regained her wits tomorrow."
"But I will know I broke my word. Yielded to temptation. And in any case, am I to compromise my soul, and everything I am, for that, that light-skirt?" he asked, gritting his teeth, as he watched Pamela flirt and laugh, a magnet to which all male eyes were drawn.
"She's trying to make you jealous, man! You promised her the first dance. To give it to her friend Belinda and thus let her down was badly done. It was slap in the face she could not accept meekly."
He nodded grimly. "I couldn't trust myself with her, do you not see?" Jonathan confessed.
Clifford shook his head. "Then best to not have come at all, my dear fellow. You should have returned to Brimley today just as you had planned. If you have no intention of offering decently for Pamela, then keep away. Don't make her fall more in love with you than she already has.
"And don't even think about letting your loins rule your head. She can't be trifled with in so disgraceful a manner, and you can't possibly be even thinking about ruining her after all Jane has suffered."